Fire delves into the controversial film by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, the first on lesbian love to have a commercial release in India. Set in a contemporary middle-class Hindu household in the heart to Delhi, Fire is the story of Radha and Sita, the wives of two brothers, who fall in love with one another. The film premiered to critical acclaim in 1996, travelled the international circuit, and was finally distributed in India in 1998. But a few weeks after the film's release activists of the Hindu Right unleashed their fury upon the film; rampaging mobs vandalized theatres and attacked the film for promoting 'perversion' and insulting Hindu religion. The protests were resisted with equal vigour, resulting in post-independent India's first public debate on homosexuality.

Shohini Ghosh's book contends that Fire is a queer classic for both cinematic and historic reasons, mapping its achievements against the larger socio-political developments that were unfolding in India at the turn of the new millennium. The incendiary controversy over the film gave queer sexuality and activism a heightened visibility in India, and most importantly, 'taught' mainstream audiences to read 'queerly.'

Reviews

Reviews

Shohini Ghosh's masterful deconstruction of Deepa Mehta's film is an exceptionally readable work... A book of rare quality in the spare area of Indian Cinema Studies. — Shyam Benegal

The name Fire and the cover of the book will remind everybody of the controversial film Fire by Indo-Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta, which dealt with lesbianism in the middle-class family. This was a first movie of its kind to be commercially released in India. It sparked a lot of controversies in India, where movie theatres were rampaged and posters of the movie torn. The book throws light on all those incidents that happened during its release.

The book also contends that Fire is a queer classic for both cinematic and historic reasons, mapping its achievements against the larger socio-political developments that were unfolding in India at the turn of the new millennium. The controversy over the film gave queer sexuality and activism a heightened visibility in India. The film has indeed created history in the Indian cinema and would be acclaimed for its bold story and equally good direction. — Varsha Verma, All About Book Publishing, November 2011